Palin: Foreign Policy NRA-Style

Conservative pundit, television personality and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin during the 41st annual Conservative Political Action Conference on March 8, 2014 in National Harbor, Maryland.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin borrowed from the National Rifle Association’s talking points to offer foreign policy advice this evening at the Conservative Political Action Committee conference.

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke,” said Palin, a play on the NRA’s oft-repeated slogan that the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, gave a mostly upbeat and sound-bite rich closing address at the three-day conference in Oxon Hill, Md. – an event that has evolved into a high-profile gathering of conservative activists of all stripes from throughout the country.

She said that the country is “awakening,” and singled out Senator Ted Cruz of Texas for particular praise. “Liberty needs a Congress on Cruz control,” she said.

Cruz was one of a number of potential 2016 Republican presidential candidates to address the conference. He came in second place today in a staw poll among attendees who were asked to select their favorite presidential candidate. — far behind the winner, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Paul, who won the poll last year with 25% of the vote, chalked up 31% this year (out of 2,459 ballots cast). Cruz got 11%.

The voters had more than 20 names to choose from, including Palin, who got 2%.

In her wrap-up speech, Palin mocked President Barack Obama’s response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s incursion into Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, calling the U.S. administration’s policy “dazed and confused.”

She earned laugher when she parodied Obama telephoning the Russian leader to say: “Vladimir, don’t fool around or you’re going to feel my — flexibility.”

At one point, audience members urged her to seek office again, chanting, “One more run.”

Palin, a jogger, responded: “I should. I didn’t get to run this morning. I was so busy.”